We All Know The Risks
by Bittersweet2
Summary: Seemingly without cause, things go massively wrong on the Enterprise, and just as suddenly correct themselves. When two officers appear to be dead, Archer wants to get to the bottom of what happened. *Things are getting really wierd now!! ch4 up!!*
1. Default Chapter

Author's note:  
  
Hi! I'm back with a second fic, and an even worse title than before!! I'd like to thank Midnight Dove, Dorothy "Dotty" Lee, Rae, Erin Chase and Feathers for their very kind reviews of "Bane and Shadow", the first one…it meant a lot to me. Thank you. Oh – and this one's not finished yet. So you'll just have to wait for chapter 2. Sorry…  
  
Synopsis:  
  
Seemingly without cause, things go massively wrong on the Enterprise, and just as suddenly correct themselves. When two officers appear to be dead, Archer wants to get to the bottom of what happened. Is the Enterprise under attack…or worse?  
  
Spoilers:  
  
None so far.  
  
  
  
We All Know The Risks  
  
By Bittersweet  
  
  
  
Archer wondered slowly through the corridors of the Enterprise, nodding occasionally to crewmen who acknowledged his presence. Behind him, Porthos followed avidly, wagging his tail and generally looking very pleased with having run of the ship. Archer's thoughts turned to their latest mission – nothing hugely interesting; they were mapping a particularly empty sector of space. He made his way down towards his quarters, and keyed open the door, gesturing for Porthos to enter first. The beagle skipped over the doorframe, and immediately headed towards his food dish; as Archer sat down to make his log entry for the day. Before he could even open the correct computer files, however, a slight vibration began to shake the desk. It started out gently at first, causing a few things to rattle, and then became more intense. Objects began to fall from the shelves, and Porthos let out a whine of dismay, cowering beneath a chair. Archer staggered to his feet as the ship seemed to be shaking apart around him. He reached for the communications panel, managing to open a channel.  
  
"Archer to bridge, what on earth's going on?"  
  
"Unknown captain – your presence may be required."  
  
"I'm on my way."  
  
Archer headed for the door, and then stopped, glancing back at Porthos. The dog whined pitifully. Archer sighed, and picked up a chunk of cheese, throwing it gently. Despite his terror, Porthos grabbed it greedily, and Archer knew his pet would be fine. He turned, and strode purposefully towards the bridge.  
  
"We're not receiving any transmissions of any kind," Hoshi reported, raising her voice to carry over the noise of the vibrations, as Archer came onto the bridge, "nothing to indicate a presence, hostile or otherwise."  
  
"I'm not showing anything on sensors," Reed confirmed.  
  
"There are no spatial phenomena to account for the turbulence," T'Pol reported, "I am detecting…nothing."  
  
"Do we ever come across anything which isn't a mystery?" Archer asked, rhetorically, taking his seat, "Archer to Trip."  
  
"Trip here - it's nothin' wrong with the engines, cap'n, I swear…!"  
  
"Just checking. Archer out."  
  
Just then, just as he signed off the communication with Trip, Archer felt it – an intense pressure that seemed to pin him to the back of his chair. He glanced down at his hands – they seemed to be…phasing…in and out of each other, like he was seeing double…he glanced up, realising that the other crewmembers had noticed the phenomena too, in themselves and in each other. Then, just as suddenly, the heavy pressure was gone. In fact, Archer noted, all pressure was entirely gone – the artificial gravity was down. He gripped the armrests of his chair, managing to hold himself in place in an attempt not to drift off. From the muffled exclamations and curses from the rest of the bridge crew, several of them hadn't been so lucky. Archer took a quick look around. Travis, the experienced "space boomer" was expertly holding himself in place with one hand while steering with the other, a slight smile on his face. Hoshi had somehow turned around in her chair and was gripping the backrest tightly, her arms and legs wrapped around it for dear life. Archer had a feeling they weren't going to be contacting anyone until gravity was restored. T'Pol clung to her station one handed, her knuckles almost white with the exertion, as she braced her feet against the wall to hold herself in place, attempting to use the scanners. Two crewmen were clinging to a railing near the back of the bridge, while a third was floating helplessly in midair. Reed had somehow curled under the edge of his console, bracing himself in place with his knees while leaving both hands free to operate tactical.  
  
"Archer to Trip…"  
  
"Trip here - I'm workin' on it!"  
  
"Just checking. Archer out."  
  
"We are receiving a hail," T'Pol reported, after a few minutes, "audio only."  
  
She shot a significant glance at Hoshi.  
  
"Let's hear it," Archer told her.  
  
Hoshi snaked out one hand to touch a button, before wrapping it quickly around the back of the chair again. There was a soft hiss of static, and then a voice came over, speaking in clear English.  
  
"We have scanned your ship and downloaded your language files," the voice told them, "you cannot see us, because we have forbidden it. However, your species…you 'humans'… may have some small potential. Far more interesting than the Vulcans, at any rate…we shall see."  
  
Archer opened his mouth to reply, but T'Pol cut him off.  
  
"The transmission has been lost, captain."  
  
"Damn," Archer muttered, "I wonder what all that meant?"  
  
Any further reflection on the strange transmission was cut short, as muffled thumps, curses and growls signalled the sudden return of artificial gravity.  
  
"Trip to Archer."  
  
"Archer here – I take it the gravity's back online?"  
  
"Just checkin'. Trip out."  
  
And then all hell broke loose.  
  
Sirens blared on and off around the bridge, as the bridge crew stood in dazed shock for barely a second, and then scrambled to check their stations.  
  
"Sir, helm control has been completely shut down!" Travis shouted out, first, "I'm not getting any response from any of my systems! I'm still trying to…"  
  
Lost in the confusion of voices shouting reports, Archer left him to it, trying to listen to everyone at once.  
  
"Communications are down, both ship-wide and ship-to-ship," Hoshi was saying, "the universal translator is going haywire and I'm picking up dozens of malfunction reports, half of which wouldn't be received if there were malfunctions in those areas, and…"  
  
"Sensors showing multiple anomalous reading around the ship," T'Pol's cool voice cut through the sea of panic, "I suggest we polarise the hull."  
  
"I wish I could!" Reed shot back, "it seems the hull plating isn't responding to my commands – damn it! We've got an intruder alert in shuttle bay two!"  
  
"Get down there!" Archer ordered.  
  
"Security team meet me in bay two, we have an intruder alert…"  
  
"Sir, we're dead in the water," Travis shouted out, "nothing's responding on my board!"  
  
"I wish I had your problem," Hoshi's fingers moved rapidly across her console, "I'm receiving multiple transmissions from all decks, many of which are ghost signals…the communications system's going to overload if I can't shut it down!"  
  
"I'm re-routing power from your console, ensign," T'Pol spoke up, "systems are beginning to overload ship wide, captain."  
  
"What the hell caused this?" Archer demanded, as the lighting flickered dangerously, "the ship's falling apart!"  
  
"Unknown, captain."  
  
Archer glanced up at the view screen. It showed nothing but stars, as he turned back to the bridge crew. Things seemed to be gradually coming back under control.  
  
"Captain," T'Pol's voice reached him again, "I'm receiving sensor reports that engineering has been flooded with radiation."  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Decompression alert in cargo bay two!" cried a crewman near the back of the bridge.  
  
Archer felt himself go cold. Trip? Reed? The crew of engineering? The security team?  
  
"I need confirmation," he heard himself say, slowly, "find out what the hell's going on around here!" 


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note:  
  
Thank you to Meianou, Kim, Shi shi, Lt. Spooky, Chianna, Suzanne, Braycat and Sethos for the kind reviews of chapter one. Here's chapter two for you guys, but I doubt it will do much to relieve the suspense. Me evil, yes?  
  
We All Know The Risks  
  
By Bittersweet  
  
  
  
"Get that damn gravity back online!" Trip shouted to one of his subordinates.  
  
"I'm trying, sir, the controls are not responding!"  
  
"I'm loosing power to the warp core!" shouted another voice.  
  
Trip, who was still clinging to a railing in the zero gravity, swung around in shock and nearly kicked a crewman in the face.  
  
"What?"  
  
"The warp core – it's shutting down, but the impulse engines are nearing maximum power capacity."  
  
"Reroute the power then!"  
  
"I can't!"  
  
"You should be able to!"  
  
"Tell that to the damn computer! Sir!"  
  
"I've got gravity back on line," called the first crewman, "initialising now!"  
  
Trip cursed as he slammed bodily into the deck, and scrambled to his feet, over to the control panel for the warp core. Sure enough, the engines were loosing power rapidly, and the impulse drive was near overload.  
  
"Trip to Archer!" he called out, as he worked.  
  
"Archer here – I take it the gravity's back online?"  
  
"Just checkin'. Trip out."  
  
He frowned in confusion as he board lit up. The systems all over the ship were going haywire. The engineering crew erupted into greater chaos than before, as they scrambled over each other to get to their stations. It seemed like their wasn't a system on board that wasn't going crazy. Trip straightened up as someone called his name, but it was impossible to filter out the individual voices, even amongst such a small crew. It seemed like everyone was shouting at once.  
  
"…get the damn thing under control…"  
  
"…re-rout the power through the internal relay system…"  
  
"…careful or you'll blow out the lighting on all decks!"  
  
An alert cut through the noise, and Trip spun around, trying to locate the source of the latest emergency. He froze in shock, but quickly shook himself out of it.  
  
"Everybody out of engineering, now!" he hollered out, "we got a breach in containment and we're gonna flood the ship with radiation if we don't seal off engineering. Now move!"  
  
Quickly, the crew abandoned their posts. They were loyal, but they weren't stupid or suicidal. They headed for the exits, as Trip began to punch in the commands to seal off engineering.  
  
"Sir!" shouted the last crewman, as he headed for the exit, "the doors!"  
  
"What the…?" Trip exclaimed, as he leapt from his post.  
  
The doors, which should have been on a short timer delay to allow him to escape, were already beginning to close. The crewman just managed to scramble through them before they slammed shut and locked tight, and Trip stopped in horror, his hands pressed against the cold metal surface of the door. He was trapped. He was going to die.  
  
Reed slowly entered shuttle pod bay two on the lower level, phase pistol held out in front of him, as the security team of four spread out behind him. He gestured for three of them to take a look around the bay, as he and the third man made their way up to the balcony level.  
  
"There!" cried a voice.  
  
Reed spun around, and the voice cried out again, a wordless exclamation of shock, and there was a distinctive sound of a body hitting the deck. Reed shot back down the stairs again, crewman in tow, as the other two emerged – one from within the shuttle and the other from behind it. The crewman was lying on the deck, apparently unconscious.  
  
"Take him to sickbay," Reed ordered, in a whisper, as his eyes darted around the shuttle bay.  
  
One of the other crewmen nodded a quick; "yes sir," and picked up his companion, lifting him over his shoulder and carrying him out.  
  
The remaining two crewman and Reed began to move around the bay again, this time keeping in a close formation. Reed was already berating himself for not keeping the team in eye contact with each other. He saw a movement out of the corner of his eye, and swung around, phase pistol snapping around and locking on target before he'd even registered what it was. A tendril of bright orange light vanished into the bulkhead on the opposite side of the bay.  
  
"What the…?"  
  
A loud siren suddenly cut through Reed's exclamation, making them jump.  
  
"Sir! That's a decompression alert!"  
  
"Let's move!"  
  
The two crewmen turned and headed quickly for the exit, and Reed followed them. He could have sworn there was nothing but flat deck plates, but, all of a sudden, it felt like the floor shifted upwards slightly, and he tripped over something, slamming to the deck. The two crewmen turned to help him.  
  
"Move!" Reed snapped, seeing that the door was already beginning to close, as a loud whistling signalled the air beginning to rush out of the cargo bay.  
  
The crewmen ran, skidding through the door, as Reed pushed himself to his feet and sprinted for the door. He swore loudly as the door snapped closed, and his fists impacted with the metal. Now, there was no hope of survival.  
  
A voice drifted through engineering and the shuttle bay. It was heard only by two people, and no one else – that was its intention.  
  
"Not yet. Too much promise your species has to wipe out…we shall see."  
  
They both knew they were dying, but there was something else. A tingling, fading sensation…and they were no more. 


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note:  
  
Massive thanks to Erin Chase, Kim, Kris, Braycat, Suzanne, Xenutia, CJSpooks and Antares for the reviews on chapter 2. Enjoy chapter 3…but I promise chapter 4's more interesting!!  
  
We All Know The Risks  
  
By Bittersweet  
  
  
  
CHPT3  
  
Archer stood in a thoroughly decontaminated engineering, as the crew moved methodically through their repairs. No one met his gaze, mainly because no one wanted to. The grief was all too evident in his eyes.  
  
"And…there was no…body?" he managed to ask, at last.  
  
Beside him, Phlox shook his head.  
  
"I'm afraid not, captain," he replied softly, "most unusual."  
  
"I won't believe he's dead until I see a body," Archer replied, stubbornly, "what if he wondered away somewhere? You've seen the effects of radiation poisoning before. Confusion, and that sort of thing."  
  
"I saw the radiation levels, it was impossible that he could have survived long enough," Phlox said quietly.  
  
"Not without a body, doctor."  
  
"And Lt. Reed? Will you need to see his body to believe he is dead?"  
  
"He was sucked out into space," Archer hated the way that sounded – too casual by far, "the shuttle pod bay door was wide open. You should have heard the story – I hear one of the crewmen from security had to be treated for hysterical shock…oh, God damn this!"  
  
"Yes. They were my friends, too," Phlox understood exactly what Archer meant.  
  
"Blimey," came an astonished voice, interrupting them without meaning to, "here, Lee, check this out."  
  
"What's up?" Lee, the ensign being called, joined a crewman standing at the warp core control station.  
  
Archer turned to see what was going on.  
  
"The engines…they're….they're…" the crewman shook his head in wonder, "the engines are fixing themselves."  
  
"How is that possible?" Ensign Lee stared at the console in shock.  
  
Archer frowned, and joined them on the station.  
  
"How can an engine repair itself?" he demanded, as the two of them leapt aside quickly.  
  
"I don't know sire, but look!" The crewman pointed up in shock.  
  
Archer glanced up at the bulkhead above them, where several wires and cables were hanging out, waiting to be reconnected. They seemed to be swaying slightly. Then, two of them actually seemed to lift themselves up, twisting around themselves in a serpentine manner, reconnecting and merging back into the systems. Archer watched open mouthed as the entire relay, quite literally, repaired itself. Several engineers leapt back from their stations, as the phenomena repeated itself all over the engineering section.  
  
"T'Pol to captain Archer – your presence is required on the bridge."  
  
Archer reached over to the nearest communications panel.  
  
"From what I'm seeing here in engineering, I don't doubt it!"  
  
Archer sat in his command chair, listening to the background noises of the bridge without really concentrating on what was going on. He had too much else on his mind. He knew if he wanted to he could go down to his quarters and grieve in private, but he forced himself to wait until later. He wanted answers first – more accurately, he didn't want his two friends to have died for nothing. He was also preoccupied with the phenomena that appeared to have taken over his ship – all the damaged systems had apparently repaired themselves, and the crew reported that the ship was running at peak efficiency. Archer had ordered intensive scans of the entire area – he wanted to know what had attacked them, if indeed it had been an attack, what had caused the radiation leak in engineering, and what had caused an intruder alert in the shuttle pod bay. The temporary replacement for Reed had reported that there had been no bio-signs or malfunction in the shuttle bay – it seemed the alarm had activated itself. Archer had ordered him to find out why, and now the captain had a feeling the ensign was desperately trying to think up some techno-babble that covered the phrase "stupid glitch". Archer didn't know how he'd react if he was told the two officers had been killed because of "stupid glitches", and it was pretty clear the tactical ensign didn't want to be the one to tell him. He closed his eyes. The grief could wait. It had to.  
  
"Captain," T'Pol's voice interrupted his thoughts, "my scans have detected unusually high energy readings of unknown origin from within a nearby asteroid."  
  
Archer sometimes envied the Vulcan control of emotion, but only at times of negative emotion.  
  
"Distance?"  
  
"Approximately forty-three minutes at maximum warp," T'Pol replied.  
  
"Travis, set a course."  
  
"Aye sir."  
  
Archer watched as Mayweather input the co-ordinates, and watched the stars on the view screen as they went to warp.  
  
"Sir! Travis exclaimed, "that wasn't me!"  
  
"Explain!" Archer said, puzzled.  
  
"I hadn't finished inputting the course, sir," Travis replied, sounding just as puzzled as Archer, "the ship – it's steering itself!"  
  
"That is illogical, ensign," T'Pol interrupted, coolly, "not to mention highly improbable."  
  
"T'Pol, I stood in engineering and watched a relay repair itself – literally," Archer responded, "does anyone have any suggestions as to what the hell is going on around here?!"  
  
"It sounds like the ship's coming alive," Hoshi said, softly, "possessed, in fact."  
  
Archer was surprised to note that T'Pol didn't argue.  
  
'Maybe this is starting to get to her, too,' he thought, and hoped the ship knew where it was going. 


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note:  
  
One hastily uploaded chapter, because I'm getting behind! Thanks to everyone for the reviews – I wish I could thank you all personally as usual, but I'm pressed for time!!! Damn school – argh!!  
  
We All Know The Risks  
  
By Bittersweet  
  
CH4  
  
"Captain," Hoshi spoke up, "there's something wrong with my console."  
  
"So what else is new?" Archer snapped, and then gritted his teeth, "sorry, Hoshi. What's wrong?"  
  
"The console says we're receiving a hail, but every time I open a channel, it comes up with an error, claiming there's nothing to receive."  
  
"Gremlins in the system?" Travis joked.  
  
The helmsman was leaning back in his chair, with little else to do than watch the ship fly itself. He'd given up trying to control their direction – it seemed to have little effected. Suddenly, a high pitched whine filled the bridge. It was coming from the tactical station. Archer turned slowly in his chair to fix the ensign standing there with a glare.  
  
"What is it this time?" he asked.  
  
His patience was wearing thin, with barely suppressed anger starting to creep in. He was tired and the loss of Trip and Malcolm had hurt him deeply, and seemed everything was doing it's best to wind him up now. The ensign squirmed.  
  
"N…nothing, sir," he stuttered, "apparently, there's nothing wrong."  
  
The whine shut off as suddenly as it began, and Hoshi gasped in shock.  
  
"Captain, I think you'd better take a look at this!"  
  
Archer stood up and quickly crossed over to her console. She pointed to a small visual display, used for translating alien text. On it, a message had flashed up.  
  
"Tell Travis we resent being called gremlins," Archer read out loud.  
  
Hoshi, Archer and Travis all exchanged shocked glances. T'Pol raised the customary eyebrow.  
  
"Who's we?" Archer said, at last, more hopefully than anything else.  
  
The display flickered, and then changed.  
  
TRIP. AND REED. WE ARE HERE.  
  
"Is this some kind of a joke?!" Archer demanded, clenching his fists in anger.  
  
"No joke sir," Hoshi sounded on the verge of panic, "this is from within the system itself."  
  
By now, T'Pol had joined them, and was watching the exchange silently.  
  
"Explain," Archer said, signalling to Hoshi that he did not mean her.  
  
FELT LIKE TRANSPORTER BEAM. TOOK US A WHILE TO WORK OUT. WE ARE PART OF THE SHIP.  
  
"That's impossible!" the words were out of Archer's mouth before he realised it.  
  
With all that had been going on recently, how impossible was it?  
  
NO. WE CAN PROVE IT.  
  
There was a slight pause, and the display flickered quite a bit, before the message changed.  
  
HOW THE BLOODY HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO PROVE THAT?  
  
T'Pol raised an eyebrow. Archer stifled a grin.  
  
SHUT IT, REED, I WAS TALKING TO JOHN.  
  
"Don't start arguing," Archer interrupted, "just…tell me what's going on."  
  
SENTIENT LIGHT. ALIEN – IT WAS TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE SHIP. THAT WAS WHAT BLEW OUT OUR SYSTEMS – THEY MERGE WITH TECHNOLOGY TO COMMUNICATE. NOT ENCOUNTERED US BEFORE – TOO POWERFUL FOR OUR SYSTEMS TO HANDLE. NEEDED…US.  
  
"Why?"  
  
WANTED ME…TRIP…REALISED I KNEW THE SHIP'S SYSTEMS THE BEST. KNEW I COULD 'INTERFACE' MORE EASILY.  
  
"And Malcolm?"  
  
There was a long pause.  
  
MISTAKE.  
  
"I don't understand."  
  
WE WEREN'T MEANT TO FIND THE ALIEN IN THE SHUTTLE BAY. TOOK ME TO STOP ME FROM TELLING EVERYONE I SAW IT. WEREN'T MEANT TO KNOW.  
  
"Why would the alien do this?"  
  
THAT'S WHAT WE WANT TO FIND OUT. ENERGY SOURCE IS SENTIENT.  
  
"Sentient energy? The light?"  
  
YES.  
  
"Is it hostile?"  
  
There was quite a lot of flickering on the display monitor – no doubt Trip and Malcolm were arguing over whether or not the alien was hostile. It wasn't difficult to figure out who held which opinion. Eventually, the admission flashed up;  
  
DON'T KNOW. MALCOLM WILL TAKE OVER THE WEAPONS. AGREED?  
  
"Yes," Archer replied, "but don't do anything without my orders. Understood?"  
  
YES SIR.  
  
Archer nodded, and then something occurred to him.  
  
"So…you two are in the whole ship?"  
  
YES.  
  
"Everywhere?"  
  
EVERYWHERE.  
  
"Including…the privacy of crew quarters?"  
  
YE…JOHN!!  
  
"Oh, come on Trip, don't tell me you weren't tempted."  
  
There was a long pause.  
  
MALCOLM WOULDN'T LET ME…  
  
"Just checking…" 


End file.
